He rails against the “far left’s” hoaxes. He says the World Health Organization has been “beclowned” over its response to the coronavirus. And he describes a “secret and partisan surveillance machine” run by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff.

Those aren’t President Donald Trump’s words. They came from Brendan Carr, the junior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, who is embracing a flavor of distinctly Trumpian rhetoric that could help him leapfrog his way to the chairmanship of the five-member regulatory agency.

Winning Trump’s favor via television is an established playbook that has aided past administration officials, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who both got their jobs after becoming prominent on right-wing cable news.

“We’re in a world where there are people sitting in high government positions right now, or previously, because the president saw them on TV, saw them on Fox News,” Gigi Sohn, who advised former Democratic FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said in an interview. “There may be a method to this madness.”

Carr, a 41-year-old former communications lawyer who became a commissioner in 2017, is hitting just the right notes to appeal to Trump, who could soon use a new FCC chairman if he wins a second term November. Trump’s first chairman, Ajit Pai, has helmed the agency for about 3 1/2 years and faces questions about what he may want to do next.

“I just think it’s unfortunate when an FCC official goes way out of his lane just to try to audition to be the chairman in a possible second Trump administration,” Sohn remarked. “I’ve been very shocked by how far out on a limb he’s gone to try to get the White House’s attention.”

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